(1) Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is calibration of a video capture device, more specifically the present invention is a method and an apparatus for automated optimization of white and color balance on a video camera.
(2) Related Art
Presently available video cameras are often equipped with various manual calibration features including white balance which allows the manual calibration of white images. Lighting is an important factor in the process of accurate video capture of clear white and color balanced images. Typically, when a video camera is turned on in an arbitrary lighting environment, the target captured by the video camera may not be perceived in the correct color. For example, whites may not be perceived as white and human faces may be captured with a slight green tint.
There are various disadvantages inherent in the video capture method of prior art technology. For example, presently available video cameras are typically equipped with manual white balancing function which adjusts xe2x80x9cwhitexe2x80x9d targets captured by a video camera and fine tunes the xe2x80x9cwhitexe2x80x9d into a more realistic shade of white. Unfortunately, it is difficult to correctly perform manual white balance due to the operator judgment and intervention required to set color controls. Furthermore, the manual white balancing function of prior art is catered to adjusting white and does not necessarily work for adjusting colors. Additionally, an auto white balancing function available in some video cameras may work poorly since no white reference is provided for the video camera to make the white color adjustment.
It is therefore desirable to provide an automatic method and apparatus to calibrate white as well as color for targets captured by a video camera.
A method for optimizing white and color balance on a video capture device is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of capturing an image of an optical target through the video capture device and calibrating the captured image using a predetermined reference image having desired white and color parameters. The calibration results in the captured image matching the predetermined reference image.